"What’s really interesting is that the author of the music promo also posted a Making Of… video, showing how still images were treated with the Vanishing Point feature in Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe After Effects, to create the illusion of motion and depth. The end result is very impressive."

"...watch The New York Times infographic animation How Mariano Rivera Dominates Hitters and learn about the differences between a 'fastball', a 'cutter' and a 'slider'. ...BP tries to inform the public about the technical details of its relief well drilling efforts, which also includes the exact video explanation BP uses internally for their own personnel currently present on their rigs. "

IA also posts favorite YouTube videos; here's one by Christobal Vila, who also did Ihsfahan (rig below), and shares tips and tutorials in Spanish on his work (Google Chrome translated automatically):

Mechanism Digital posted a press release about their use of face replacement in fictionalized "reenactments" (journalism itself can be a contradiction in terms) for an MSNBC documentary on Timothy McVeigh:

"On the set, Peacock shot thousands of high resolution photographs of recreated scenes, visual elements and a stand-in actor depicting McVeigh in action. Mechanism then built a CG 3D model of Timothy McVeigh’s face and replaced every frame of the actor’s face with it.

Mechanism’s unique approach to facial replacement had never been used in documentary filmmaking before which gave the compositor every possible frame of final rendered CGI in advance. In developing and refining this technique, multiple 3D models of McVeigh’s head were pre-rendered every two degrees of rotation on two axes. Two sequences of frames were a combination of 11 expressions and 11 eye positions. The number of images was then doubled by rendering two camera focal lengths to match the lenses used on set; totaling over half a million images and layers. These images were brought into After Effects with Mechanism’s custom expressions allowing the compositing artists to rotate McVeigh’s photo realistic head in real time within the program."See also Todd Kopriva's Face replacement with mocha from David Torno on tutorials on how Torno did tracking, compositing, and other post-production work for a music video. The cmiVFX training Nuke Facial Replacement Techniques looks interesting too.

Here's a little "making of" for the McVeigh piece (the embed code is buggy, but there's a fullscreen option):

And for an example of a different kind, check out this Spanish man, “Oscar,” the recipient of the first 100 percent face transplant. Previous transplants in France and the United States were only partial, but on the increase due to war wounds.

"Lola are arguably the world's leaders in human face and body manipulation. In The Social Network Lola completed a hundred or so shots, but a key 20 of those involved delicate face replacement to allow one actor to play two roles - the Winklevoss twins. We spoke in-depth with Lola's VFX supervisor Edson Williams about the technical process."

Video Copilot has a new tutorial, 107. Green Smoke, that uses smoke particles to reveal text. Andrew Kramer show some tips for randomizing the particles using Trapcode Particular and real smoke samples (something he favors in several of his tutorials, like 63. Smoke Screen).

Caveats on this unsupported modification and its origin on forums were discussed here in May in Preference mod widens CS5 CUDA acceleration. The new article above details additional tests with a wider range of Nvidia graphics cards and notes that power requirements may change with new cards. Having inexpensive hardware acceleration for a few layers with effects on DSLR footage has made some users pretty happy; conversation on the mod continues at the Adobe forums.

"There are no hard and fast rules, so this is a collection of some of my techniques that I've been using for the last 15 years or so using After Effects. It centres around setting up a render process early in a project, using image sequences until the very final stage. This has some surprising advantages.

I also cover the use of background renderer, creation of output modules and render settings templates, memory, multi-processing and disk-cache preferences, as well as showing a basic preset for rendering FLVs and Quicktime H.264 out of After Effects."

Note that CUDA exceleration can make exports faster, for example when scaling, especially with a next generation card like the GeForce 470. Encoding is not currently accelerated in hardware; the Elemental Encoder plug-in for Premiere wasn't developed for CS5.Adobe TV has several other videos on exporting video & stills and on AME. Here's how to export just a still, which is a bit faster than exporting to AME:

June 26, 2010

'When effects are used on a video frame, sometimes the effect needs to convert the values back to RGB before the effect can be applied. In 8-bit or 16-bit-per-channel color space, there can potentially be "rounding errors" when performing this calculation. This can mean situations where pixels that should pass through an effect unchanged will, in fact change in an unwanted way.

Effects in Premiere Pro that have the YUV logo do the processing directly on the YUV values without converting them to RGB first. At no point are the pixel values converted to RGB, and you won't see any unwanted color shifting.32-bit color space has the color precision to convert cleanly from YUV to RGB, and will not cause any of these rounding errors. In Premiere Pro, all of the 32-bit effects are "safe" to use.'

Update 2: Karl adds, "...in the engineering world, when discussing YUV color channels properly, there are two separate terms for analog color signals and digital colored signals. The term Y,Pb,Pr is referring to an analog signal, and I used it in a couple of my posts to describe a digital signal. The correct term for the digital signal is Y,Cb,Cr. Graeme Nattress from RED pointed out the mistake in the repost of this blog on Pro Video Coalition."

'Now After Effects [CS5] knows the details of the constraints. When you choose an output module and change settings in the Output Module Settings dialog box, the settings are checked against this set of constraints. If there's a mismatch, a "Settings mismatch" alert and a yellow triangle icon appear at the bottom of the Output Module Settings dialog box. If you click the yellow triangle icon, a message explains what's going on...'

June 25, 2010

John Kostrzewski's Quick Tip on the After Effects Flowchart
at Fuel Your Motionography [RIP] illustrated how to use the Flowchart Panel.
Many ignore this window since it did not actually herald nodes in AE,
but it can be useful if you need an overview of your project's
organization.

Trish and Chris Meyer are among the very earliest users and teachers of After Effects and have redesigned the book to reflect new features from both CS4 and CS5. This is the definitive book on After Effects and an essential reference for all but a few. It now includes sections on:

Mastering animation through the use of keyframes, motion paths, and the Graph Editor

"In a recent tutorial Animating a Still, we used tracking data from a real hand-held camera to give our still image a natural look, as opposed to using a mathematical expression like the wiggle. This gave our footage a natural organic look that would be difficult to achieve with expressions.

Then I thought I would try a similar experiment utilizing a real optical rack focus. So I filmed a dark square while performing a real rack focus to see if I could extract the information inside of after effects to use with a 3D camera."

The Video Copilot community offered several alternatives in Comments to Andrew's post. Also, Maltaannon tweeted that it would be simpler with his CE PixelSampler -- if you have the time to install and explore it. Maltaannon leverages the sampleImage expression; it doesn't give you the read out on the screen, but it does return the color value, so you can link it to a text layer.

[update: on the AE-List David Torno explains why there may be problems with "Custom Effects" in CS5, "Maltaannon builds his Custom Effects usually involves a psuedo plugin via the "preseteffects.xml" file, like how I did my Handheld Camera script. I found out when trying to update my script that Adobe changed how those plugins are referenced in CS5. So the code syntax needs to be updated. I gave him a heads up when I found this, not sure if he's seen that yet or not though. It is fixable manually if you feel like diving into the code, but it's not for the faint of heart. "]For more on sampleImage, see posts by Dan Ebberts, by Todd Kopriva,sampleImage() is fun and More fun with sampleImage(): Ascii animation in After Effects from Creative Workflow Hacks, and info in Creating Motion Graphics (4th edition, Bonus Chapter 35B, page 48 under Sampling Colors; in CMG 5, it's in chapter 37B, page 49).

'There is much concern in the VFX industry about our jobs being outsourced to India, and even China [which bans unapproved reincarnation]. Indeed, India is rapidly booting up a visual effects industry and has a vast pool of low cost artists to staff it with. Since I have been to India five times to conduct VFX training (the most recent being a two-month visit to two different facilities) I am often asked about the “lay of the land” there. While India has much potential, they do have some systemic problems to overcome. [...]So what does all this mean to the worried domestic VFX artist? If I were a junior artist with only roto or paint skill I would be worried. The lower the skill and artistic requirements for a job the more vulnerable it will be to taking the exodus to India. To keep our well-paying domestic jobs we will need to continually upgrade our technical and artistic skills. Don’t just be a compositor. Be a lighter-compositor. Be the “shot finisher” with superb color correction skills. Get into stereo. Take some art classes and have an artistic hobby to show a potential employer. Bottom line - the higher up the VFX food chain you are the more secure your job is.'

Todd Kopriva has reminded us how to avoid the Community Help Client application if we're having problems. Adobe does have a nice range of Help via the web, PDF, and the Community Help Client AIR app. But some have found it difficult to switch between uses (for example if in an off-web editing room) or have problems with the newish Community Help Client, aka Adobe Help or Adobe Community Help (the latter term is also the name of the Adobe Support web portal). Others mourn the loss of a Table of Contents bar in favor of the breadcrumb navigation of CS5 Help (the addition of Help commenting can't really be the reason), or find that the one-at-a-time adding of apps to the client plus Exits are a bit cumbersome.

To switch between using a web browser and the Adobe Community Help, in the client select Edit > Preferences > Accessibility Mode. You can also update the client then take it back offline, and there's more options for mass control for network IT types. For more on the client, see the Adobe blog The Insider, and give feedback at the Community Help Application forum(the app itself uses 2 other names on your hard drive). The advantage of using the client is that all your help is updated and conveniently in one place.

One advantage of using the PDF version of Help is that you look only on the app version you're using and screen all other content. A minor disadvantage is that you can't get to the Help PDF by using F1 or invoking Help > After Effects Help. Confirming that last statement is an unwieldy search task itself. In any case, it might be possible to change the preference/config file that controls the launch of Help by replacing the URL of AE Help with a local drive location, but that would take some digging (changes to AE prefs or AfterEffects_10.0.helpcfg haven't worked here).

Help is constantly being improved, so it's best to update it regularly. Todd Kopriva said awhile back that the AE Help PDF is updated "About once per month; each time the HTML version of Help on the Web is updated. I've added nearly 20 pages since October, in addition to dozens of corrections and tweaks."

For more background on Help, see previous posts AE Help clarification & survey, AE Help on the way, and more via the tag Help. I'd like to see more information design to help people find the easy answers. Lists and forums offer answers and recurring problems are easily solved, but answers are often hard to find. There’s a massive amount of help already out there, so it would be good if there was a database with task-based keywords that better matched groups of solutions to problems. Results could include solutions that use built-in tools, and others that provide better and/or faster solutions provided by 3rd party plug-ins and by various tutorials. Hopefully, this would also include searches or "discovery" of metadata in tutorial movies; see Adobe: 'The future of video is searchable' and other posts on metadata. The current Help is a step in this direction, but search results can still be unwieldy.

Update: more pictures (not just icons) in Help would also help making reading easier.

This Little Planets filter applies a stereographic projection to a spherical panorama and makes it possible to seamlessly animate from a birds-eye view in the sky to that of a bug on the ground. You can get smooth warping between the planet and tunnel views by changing the latitude offset. He also has interactive demos, and points out an older implementation, Azimuthal projections.

June 15, 2010

GenArts announces Monsters GT for After Effects, with over 50 effects including a variety of stylize, distort effects, fluid, trail, and particle effects. Currently only the Windows version is available (for CS5 & CS4); the Mac version should be out in Summer 2010.

There's floating point support, and the fluid simulation filters especially will benefit from GPU optimization, supported at the maximum in NVidia GeForce 200 or 400 series or Quadro 5800. Many of these are unique filters from the Flame and Smoke world, and several are very similar to other AE filters. Monsters GT was acquired in the purchase of SpeedSix, adding to GenArts stable of AE filter sets that include Sapphire, Tinder, and particleIllusion. Monsters GT features these tools:

Stylize effects such as CCTV, NightVision and Brush

Warps and distort effects such as HeatHaze, Puddle and Ripple

Particle effects such as Rain, Smoke and Snow

Fluidz, a set of plug-ins that use the power of 2d fluid dynamics to create Fire and fluid flow simulations (was in Raptors)

Trailz, a set of plug-ins that create a variety of smooth, particulate and stop-motion trails (was in Raptors).

June 14, 2010

Using lights as adjustment layers lets you precisely control exposure by controlling which layers are affected by which lights. Chris and Trish Meyer have called these "Adjustment Lights" in their 2008 book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects (see p. 281).

At AdobeTV, Tracy Peterson shows how to create clean keys quickly using the Ultra Key chroma keyer in Adobe Premiere Pro. By now Keylight in After Effects is well known and high-quality, but the Ultra Keyer may come in handy sometime even if it's not GPU-accelerated and only supports 8-bits per channel.

June 13, 2010

"Most of the time it is the best practice to manually control the lights in your After Effects scenes. There are situations however, when you may want to automate the dynamic changes in light color and intensity while maintaining high level of control over the look of your composition. That’s what the Automated Light Rig is all about.

In this tutorial I will show you how to link your lights with automated samplers on an image map, creating an ever-changing, yet unified, light rig. While the tutorial explains the expressions in depth, I am also providing you with presets simplifying the entire process into just few clicks.As a little extra, I will also show you how to create a 3D light-aware smoke using Trapcode Particular (my method is a bit more involved than the standard Particular setup, but produces results that are much more true to life)."

Oliver Peters has a thoughtful post on the state of editing software (with links to other recent reviews of Adobe and Avid releases) in Will CS5 and MC5 toast FCP? Here's a sample:

"It’s the ecosystem around FCP that changed it from an amateur DV editing software into a viable professional product. On the other hand, if you are working in news, then it’s more likely to be Avid than Final Cut. The main reason is the robustness of Avid’s news and shared storage solutions. Plus direct, professional support from the company, not a reseller.

In the case of Avid, Adobe and Apple, part of the business model is the suite of software that comes in the whole retail package. Avid Media Composer is typically considered as just the editing application, but in fact, the retail (boxed) version includes the Production Suite of 3rd party applications (Squeeze, BCC filters, Avid FX, Avid DVD and SmartSound). Although the emphasis is on Media Composer, this bundle offers you much of the same functionality as Apple Final Cut Studio or Adobe Production Premium CS5.

The other software is part of what people have built their businesses around. For example, design with Photoshop, build motion graphics with After Effects or Motion, color grade with Color and author with DVD Studio Pro, Encore or Avid DVD. All of these revenue streams factor into the decision of which way to go, aside from the simple choice of which editor to use. Swapping out the core platform is not a decision most owners take lightly in a challenged economy."

Old news in Internet time, Canzona posted a video composed of examples of 1000 iterations of YouTube compression. An homage to Alvin Lucier, "this piece explores the 'photocopy effect', where upon repeated copies the object begin to accumulate the idiosyncrasies of the medium doing the copying." (via Videomaker)

"The first edition of this 2-part video tutorial has Eran Stern delving into the mind of a woman. Join him as he creates a tunnel vision effect by applying a few After Effects tricks such as time remapping, motion blur, blending, and color correction to footage from Artbeats.com. This cool technique can be used on it's own or in conjunction with Part 2 (coming soon)."

June 12, 2010

"For over a decade GenArts had a single product – Sapphire – plug-ins for high end systems such as Flame, and in more recent times, After Effects. Recently GenArts has begun to diversify, acquiring Monsters GT from Speed Six, Tinder from The Foundry, and Particle Illusion from Wondertouch. In this candid episode I discuss each of these products with GenArts' Steve Bannerman."

Red Giant TV has a new After Effects tutorial by Chris Zwar. In Episode 45: Creating Automated Flashing Light Patterns, Chris revisits his After Effects 3D "Centrica" project to show you how he set up the automated flashing lights patterns with expressions and lens flares (he used Knoll Spectacular; Video Copilot should work too).

June 7, 2010

AE Scripts has a new set of scripts by Ben Rollason, 3D Widgets, to make navigating the After Effects 3D space more intuitive.

Note: AE Scripts also has a number of other useful scripts for 3D in AE. Rollason prevously released Skydome , a script for After Effects that "creates a 3D environment for your After Effects compositions at the touch of a button. The environment then responds to your camera’s position, orientation, rotation and lens properties." Here's the introduction:

"By default, expressions assume you are interested in values at the current time. If you need to know the current time, just use the keyword time in an expression, and After Effects will return the current time in seconds (not frames, as we discussed in the previous section).

However, expressions allow you to access values at different points in time. They also let you find out what time keyframes and markers are located at so you can have animations change as they approach or cross one of these keys, as well as reference what other layers are doing. In this installment, we’ll explore a couple of ways to exploit time. ...including having one layer echo the movements of another with delay."

In a new After Effects tutorial and project, 100% Accurate Reflections Tutorial, Quba Michalski demonstrates "how to build a two-camera rig in order to create perfect 3D reflections. using this technique, you will be able to reflect not only 3D layers, but also lights, particles, as well as any plug-in that obeys the movement of AE's 3D camera.

The setup is trivially easy when using hand-animated cameras, but in the second half of the video I also show you how to create a more complex rig for use with Video Copilot’s Sure Target 2 camera controls."

You can also create reflections with 3rd party AE filters like RGS Warp, Zaxwerks Reflector or the free VC Reflect filter -- and through a variety of other tutorials via the tag reflect. Here's Quba's preview:

June 5, 2010

'“Help Me”, the season 6 finale of “House”, was shot with Canon 5D Mk II HDSLRs using off-the-shelf Canon still lenses [similar to the one below from Adam]. This past week, Director of Photography Gale Tattersal quashed a few rumors about how the show was shot, and commented on what he liked about using the Canons as cine cameras.

Mr. Tattersal‘s comments were made on the Cinematography Mailing List, and I reproduce them here by kind permission of Mr. Tattersal and CML’s Geoff Boyle. I’ve made minor edits for formatting and readability, and added some links...'

supports full 32-bit floating point for all internal processing, improving quality for many effects

Sapphire plug-ins for AE are licensed per machine, so one serial number allows you to use them on multiple AE compatible host applications on the same computer.

Sapphire is a massive package that's become something of an industry standard package across platforms. Genarts has brings even more to this rev, but it does come at a price and even seems to compete with the other packages by Genarts, Tinder and Monsters/Raptors. Happily there are trial and monthly rental versions, and a slew of tutorials available to make a proper evaluation. Here are a few video intros of the new version: